Hi and welcome to my Blog, my name is Paul Riddle and I live in south Leicestershire, UK. Back in August 2007 my quest began to locate as many local Little Owl territories as possible. The driving force was a reported decline in the uk numbers so I thought I would do my bit and conduct a study in my area. After 7 years and countless hours out in the field I have detected over 200 different sites. With a thirst for a greater understanding of the owls a more comprehensive monitoring and nest box programme then commenced. This also now includes monitoring the local and very sparse population of Barn Owls, please pop back occasionally and catch up with the life and times of my owls and any other wildlife that I come across. I hope you enjoy your visit!!!

Sunday, 22 January 2012

Where's owly?

Goodness the wind this morning was bad, strong enough in fact to blow your skin off! Anyway I still got out there and braved the elements for a couple of hours, my main quarry was Little Owls, 12 sites visited and not a single sighting!

Surprisingly though, a quick drop into one of my SEO sites produced a quick glimpse of an amazing 5 owls, all together!!! They weren't up long and the viewing was brief, I think something must have spooked them as it is strange to see them up so early in the day especially in the strong winds.

5 shorties all in one shot, can you seen them all?


When the owls were up they were being blown all over the place, one could sense they were uncomfortable with the gusty conditions and just wanted to get back down to the ground for some much needed cover. One by one they all landed in close proximity to each other, trouble is as soon as they are in the grass they just blend in and disappear!  

I took this image (below) seconds after the fifth bird had landed, all of them are definitely covered in this shot, but I can only see the one bird! So now we are going to have a bit of fun, (simple things please simple minds and all that!) I've gridded the image to make cross reference easier but I'm not revealing which square the only bird is that I can find. I would like to invite you to study the image and tell me where they are?

Go on give it a go! 


UPDATE!

Thank you to those of you who made an effort and attempted the "find the owl" game, you all did very well and located the owl in grid 1C, I have studied each grid time and time again and I'm sorry to say that all the other suggestions were off the mark, but worry not all it means is that you are all as bad as me (or John S, private joke!) at detecting owls, or in other words............utter useless!

Don't feel bad about it though, these owls are cunning devils and hide and seek champions!
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3 comments:

  1. Mike Randall Bird Photography22 January 2012 at 20:27

    Thanks for this Paul!
    C1 definate.
    Then imagination sets in D1 (are there two - am I halucinating.
    No more!
    Failed miserably but thinking about it if you only got one!
    Great to see 5 up at the same time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Millhouse Photography22 January 2012 at 21:48

    Hi Paul

    Yeah, there's definitely one in C1 - I could use this in class for coordinates teaching!

    Incredible to get 5 in one shot! It was very windy here today too.

    Cool post mate.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unknown23 January 2012 at 00:19

    Hi Paul, great shot of the 5 of them!
    How about:

    #1: 1C
    #2: 2A
    #3: 3B
    #4: 4D
    #5: 5F

    1C is a definite, the remainder not so much...:)

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